About Us Management

John Swindlehurst, P.Eng

President
With over 20 years in the power industry, Mr. Swindlehurst has earned a reputation for integrity and a passion for satisfying customer needs. He is responsible for all aspects of ERL's business in the Americas with significant experience throughout the organization ranging from production to engineering, sales to customer support. Having travelled to run projects in business environments around the world, Mr. Swindlehurst combines strong leadership with analytical and problem solving skills – he is an expert at focusing a business on fundamentals necessary for bottom-line success. He first joined the ERL team (formerly NxtPhase, formerly APT Power Technologies) in 2001 as a Regional Sales Manager, growing revenue in his territory with his strong product, application and market knowledge, as well as his partnership-based selling approach. Before that he spent many years at GE Energy/GE Harris/Westronic as an application engineer, proposal manager and Canadian sales manager. And before his time at GE, he began his career with a contracts and inside sales role at ABB. Mr. Swindlehurst earned his BSc Electrical Engineering in 1987 at the University of Manitoba.

René Midence, P.Eng

Director of Technical Services
For over 30 years, Mr. Midence has been involved in the design and commissioning of power substations and power plants including Protection and Control, SCADA, Substation Automation and Substation LAN systems. His well-rounded experience covers the fields of consulting and engineering, construction and commissioning, manufacturing, strategic marketing, technical support and training. In the manufacturing business, he has worked in the design and testing of medium and high voltage substations as well as metalclad switchgear, protection and control panels. During his more than 15 years of experience in manufacturing, he has contributed to the development and introduction to market of new protection and control microprocessor based relays, Ethernet switches and routers. Mr. Midence is a Senior Member of the IEEE, have active participation in the development of IEEE Standards, member of the IEEE Power Systems Relaying Committee (PSRC), member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC57 WG10. He graduated from the University of Honduras with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Electrical and Industrial Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Andy Perreault

Production Manager
Mr. Perreault has over 20 years of development and supervisory experience in a variety of engineering and design environments, with a particular focus on product development for volume manufacturing. His career includes 10+ years of development management, including 5 years of project management as part of the ERLPhase product development team. During his career, Mr. Perreault has been involved in multiple aspects of business operation, including quotations, regulatory approvals and contract manufacturing. His perspective and knowledge will help him carry forward the ERLPhase commitment to deliver high-quality products to market, with a sustained effort towards continuous product and process improvement. Prior to joining the team in 2010, Mr. Perreault served in department and project management roles with Parker Hannifin Electronic Controls (Vansco Electronics) and Kraus Global. Mr. Perreault has a diploma in Electronic Engineering Technology from Red River College, as well as a variety of courses through the University of Manitoba.

Norbert Wegner, B.Sc.E.E., P.Eng.

Research and Development Manager
With over 20 years in design engineering, Mr. Wegner leads leads research and development activities at ERLPhase. Upon receiving a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1989, Mr. Wegner joined Unisys Defense Systems and then Broadband Networks Inc (acquired by Nortel) where he played a lead role in the definition and creation of new products and architectures for defense and communications applications. In 2000 he joined PMC Sierra where he led the development of protocol test equipment for cutting edge high speed interfaces used in the validation of new IC designs, before the role expanded to that of a Technical Advisor for IC emulation technologies. Mr. Wegner joined ERLPhase Power Systems in 2008 as Hardware Manager and led the development of the 4000 series hardware platform before moving into the role of Research and Development Manager in 2014.

Nuwan Perera, Ph.D., P. Eng., SMIEEE

Product Marketing Manager
Dr. Nuwan Perera is a professional engineer with over 15 years of industrial and academic experience in power system protection. Dr. Perera joined ERLPhase in 2011. He works with customers and stakeholders to set the long-term vision and strategy for ERLPhase products. This includes market research, determining feature and product requirements and specifications, and providing technical direction for products and projects from initiation to commercial release. He is a senior IEEE member, actively involved with various IEEE Power Systems Relaying Committee (PSRC) working groups. Dr. Perera is also involved in academic research activities as an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba. He has published over 25 papers in various IEEE/IEC journals and conferences, and is an innovator of patents.

Dr. Perera earned his BSc Electrical Engineering in 2003 from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Manitoba in 2007 and 2012 respective.

Conrad Garrett

North America Sales Manager - Recording Products
Mr. Garrett has over 35 years experience with measurement, control, and monitoring devices used by utility transmission and generation, and by large industrial facilities. He joined ERLPhase in 2008, and has been involved with Digital Fault and Disturbance recorders since 1988. His efforts with ERLPhase have included sales, training, commissioning, and applications of the TESLA recording products. Throughout his career, Mr. Garrett has worked to build sustained customer relationships, involving Manufacturers’ Representative organizations, successfully promoting solutions as well as individual products. His industry experience, product knowledge and customer focus position him well to continue and accelerate growth of the TESLA recorder business. Mr. Garrett attended Martin Community College (NC), NCSU, and Purdue University course studies along with many industry and career improvement training seminars.

Ponram Karuppiah, B.E.

Product Architect & Applications Specialist
Ponram Karuppiah has over 18 years’ experience in power system protection applications and relay development. He works as Product Development Architect to create design specifications and development strategy for ERLPhase products based on the marketing requirements. He is also responsible for leading new research directions for ERLPhase products. He joined Easun Reyrolle as an Applications Engineer in 2001 where he was involved in the technical specification of new products, fault analysis, relay settings support, product validation and field support. In 2014, he joined Tata Consulting Engineering as Senior Manager where he performed power plant system studies and detailed engineering on switchyard for various power plant projects. Mr. Karuppiah joined ERLPhase in 2017, first in a technical support role and then moving into his current role of Product Architect. Mr. Karuppiah holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering.